Twitter drama:
Bumblefoot stopped following both Axl and Guns N' Roses accounts and it generated some controversy.

Also, both Guns N' Roses and Del James posted the same pic of Del, on the pit of a UYI concert. Thing is that Slash is on the picture. Del post was mentioning Slash directly while GNR was with the "Do You See Who I See?".

Found it quite amusing to see GNR and Del tweeting amicable towards Slash.

If it was to have any new songs, specially by A$hba, we'd be reading about it on his social media..

I've always thought the title "Chinese Democracy" was self-ironic... It's basically the current state of the "band"... A band (supposedly a democracy per definition) under a totalitarian regime (Axl as enforcer, the Chinese part).

The stripped down comment also relates to production values (as it'd be  up for the festival light/rig, meaning less costs), set list (not 2,5 to 3 hours) and lineup.

Think a different beast from what we're used to since 2001. Would love it to be like Dust N Bones tho

Guitar wise it is an improvement over the solo cd and Apocalyptic Love. But it is not there for me songwriting wise.
Some of the solos and intros sound dated to me.. I mean, come on, how many songs with guitar and open hi hats at the beginning can you have?

To me it sounds, in a nutshell as:
an improvement on guitars (even if sometimes he sounds like trying to 'prove' he can shred)
stale food-y songwriting.